Is there an American War Tax Resistance Movement?

A few months
ago I pointed out some discussion that was taking place on
the wtr-s email
discussion group about the possibility of turning the loose affiliation
of American war tax resisters into something more like a war tax resistance
movement.

To summarize: Larry is trying to describe a war tax resistance movement that
would be able to exert political power and act as
a “counter-friction” (in Thoreau’s sense
of the word) against the war machine. He thinks in order to do this,
resisters need to narrow down the large variety of techniques they use to a
subset that has the following characteristics:

It is illegal (that is, actual civil disobedience)

It is public (not just trying to avoid taxes and stay under the radar)

It is accompanied by a common set of clear and specific demands for change on the part of government

He is critical of the sort of war tax resistance that is primarily
conscientious objection rather than protest. If a resister is satisfied merely
to wash his or her hands of militarism by personally not paying for it,
without making his or her resistance confrontational, Larry thinks, the
resister is missing an opportunity to make the resistance make a difference
and to make a noble individual stand stronger by making it part of an
effective collective movement. That at least is my understanding of what he
means.

I have some doubt about whether such a movement would be practical to organize
or would be politically effective at this stage of the game. I also think that
the variety of methods of war tax resistance is one of the strengths of the
movement, such as it is, today — it gives people more options and is
respectful of people with a variety of lifestyles, risk tolerances, and goals.
I worry that trying to narrow down these options to a subset of “real” war tax
resistance varieties might weaken the movement rather than strengthen it, by
making it seem less possible or attractive to some potential resisters. (For
some other perspectives on the proposal, see
the responses by
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, Karl Meyer, and Bill Glassmire in the latest
issue of More Than a Paycheck.)

Characteristics of Tax Resistance

For us, tax resistance is, among other things, a struggle. And as we struggle
against militarism, this struggle must be nonviolent. It contains within
itself a model of the society that we are aiming for. Here we express some of
the characteristics of our struggle:

Collective

Because we want to transcend the very noble and respectable personal and
individual choices in order to constitute a group of disobedient
activists.

Public

Because in the face of institutions we must make very clear our
intentions for what we are putting into practice. And in the face of
public opinion we must act in the streets, write in the press,
demonstrate, bicycle from Vitori to Nanclares, etc.…

Active

In this way, through tax resistance, we also reclaim the right of all
people to participate in democratic life in a profound and responsible
way, without losing track of the serious problems that affect humanity,
in the neighborhood around us [“el barrio de al
lado,” probably an idiom I’m unfamiliar with —♇], in social
services.

Because in tax resistance we are required to go beyond opinion, that we
stop to take a stand against military spending, the manufacture and
trade in armaments, against the military. A topic so grave cannot be
left in the hands of the professional chatterboxes that join the
legislature.

And by means of tax resistance, together we contribute to the citizenry
a small seed for growing a deep democracy, one that is participatory and
as direct as it is possible for us to imagine.

Non-violent

We struggle against an unjust order of militarist violence, but always
we do so without using violence, preferring the strength of our reason.
We strike out against the state of affairs, while valuing people.

Constructive

Our objective is to transform state policy, the use made of public
funds, in order to employ them effectively in the regulation of social
conflicts. If we do not advance toward this goal, we do not find our
work useful. We intend to convert the military power into the popular
power of civil society.

Illegal

Tax resistance is a form of struggle that consists of disobedience to an
unjust law that promotes violence as a way of resolving conflicts. There
are many historical examples of disobedience to unjust laws. Must we ask
for a law that would legalize the right to conscientious tax resistance?
Here there are not many who ask for this. If such a law were made,
military spending would not go away, but would be further legalized. The
total revenue from the state would not diminish military spending. They
will not make the law that we want. So meanwhile we will publicize the
justification for disobeying unjust laws.

Educational

The tax resistance campaign will be more effective if the relationship
between the ends and the means used are consistent; if we perform all
actions such that we clearly demonstrate what we hope will follow and
explain our reasoning; if we will open real and possible paths to social
transformation even for people who are less committed. We will
continually reflect on what we do and on alternatives we propose.

Find Out More!

For more information on the topic or topics below (organized as “topic →
subtopic →
sub-subtopic”), click on any of the ♦ symbols to see other pages on this site that cover the topic. Or browse the site’s topic index at the “Outline” page.